You are Here
Linda will be giving her first reading in the city from her new collection – You are Her at Newcastle Central Library on Monday 26th July, from 6.15pm. This is a free event and all are welcome.
If you can’t make it, there’ll also be a chance to see her at Middlesbrough Literature Festival on Monday 19th July and at the Read Regional stall at Hexham Farmer’s Market on Saturday morning, 24th July.
Border Song
After combining poems and prints and engravings in Flying, last year Linda and Kim Lewis received a Visual Arts in Rural Communities grant to work on a from-scratch collaboration. They are currently in the process of creating an exciting new version of the Song of Songs, set in the North Tyne valley. It celebrates love of the land, love between two people and love of spirit in a series of images, drawings and poems.
Border Song will be exhibited at the Heritage Centre, Bellingham 19th September - 29th October.
On 7th October, National Poetry Day, Linda will lead a day’s Writing Workshop related to the show at the Centre. Bookings for this via Queen’s Hall Arts, Hexham.
Click on the image to enlarge.
From Ariel to The Zoo Father
The Poetry Room, a poetry book reading group at Blackwell’s Bookshop in Newcastle, hosted by Linda and Anna Woodford, continues to go from strength to strength. It is a space for close reading and discussion of a new collection of poems every month – on the last Tuesday, 6.30–8 pm. See www.poetrybookgroup.com for more details.
Welcome to the Palindrome
Working with Bridget Jones on Hadrian Bridge, Newcastle University campus (next to the Robinson Library, behind the Great North Museum) Linda has created a palindrome poem for this enclosed linear space. 26 enamel panels are printed with a stylised floral design, overlaid with stencil lettering bringing the outside in.
This piece is part of several new public art projects associated with the Newcastle Centre for Literary Arts (NCLA). Linda is currently working on a conceptual map for them all with Irene Brown, called Fold.
Click on the image to enlarge.
An Alphabet of Beauty & Cunning
Rockliffe Hall is a major new hotel, spa and golf course in Hurworth-on-Tees, next to Middlesbrough F.C.’s training ground. At an early stage in its development Linda was commissioned to work with the architects, designers and fellow artists Colin Wilbourn and Alec Peever to create a theme to reflect the history of the building. An Alphabet of Beauty and Cunning was inspired by the landscaping scheme of the original owner, in 1888, ‘famous for its wooded beauties and the cunning of its arrangement’. Throughout the house and grounds there are various pieces cast in bronze and carved in slate.
Click on the image to enlarge.
Writing in Three Dimensions
Urbanwords recently commissioned Linda to write an article on the difference between writing for the page and writing for a public space. You can read Writing in Three Dimensions here.
She has also been working with Urbanwords director Sarah Butler on a NAWE web resource for writers interested in this field - Writers in Public Art. A summary of the process, guidance for those keen to pursue a Public Art commission and a slideshow of examples are all available to download on the NAWE website.
Linda will also be teaching her short course in the subject - 3D Poetry: Text as Public Art - part of Newcastle University’s Creative Writing programme.
Six weekly sessions from Thursday 22nd April 5–7pm.
Phone Melanie Birch for details on 0191 222 7619.
book of days
Linda’s year renga – book of days – apparently the world’s first, is published by Smokestack Books.
According to Bulgarian poet Kristin Dimitrova:
"Linda's book is perfection itself. I read it in quarterly instalments (or seasons, more or less) because to rush it would have meant to waste it. And somehow Linda managed to give me a hint, a paradox, an impression, a straightforward story or a taste of every single day she spent in 2006, and she did it just in three or two lines. Of course, somewhere between January and February I took a peep at May 19 to see what was there for my birthday. So I confess, I used it as a Chinese fortune cookie as well."
Each month is introduced by one of Sue Dunne’s delicate ceramic reliefs cast from the flora of the Northumbrian countryside. Sue has also made a series of 12 framed pieces incorporating a single ceramic fragment accompanied by a verse from that month. A perfect gift, these are available from her studio at Ochrelands, Hexham.
Click on the image to enlarge.
Buy book of days from Inpress (Smokestack Books).
